We always knew this was a basketball league that did not deserve an automatic BCS bowl invitation.
When the BCS was formed, the Big East included Miami, Virginia Tech, Boston College, West Virginia, Rutgers, and Pittsburg. Miami and Virginia Tech were good teams (better than now), but once they left for the ACC in 2004, that should have been the end of the Big East's AQ status. It was definitely a joke to keep their AQ status going for another 8 years, and now that they've even lost West Virginia, Pittsburg, Syracuse, Rutgers, Boston College, and Louisville, Hello, who is even left.
I don't blame the basketball schools for jumping ship. The Big East has gotten desperate enough to invite academically challenged schools (Boise State) and schools from the west coast. What basketball program wants to travel like that for conference play, when they have more in common with the Atlantic 10 Conference.
Really, they should just leave football to grown men.